Childhood discovered

[Keikyu]

I cleaned up my room a fair while ago and discovered 3 quarters of an old Lima XPT. My parents bought it when i was around 3-4, and I am 22 now so it's a bit ancient. But, it was missing the power car. We didn't think we had thrown it out, but couldn't find it and forgot about it.

 

I am quite excited that today my parents dug through their drawer and found the power car. Still works after around 20 years too. It's a bit rattly and squeaky but it just needs a bit of TLC I think. I am unfortunately missing a bogey for one of the carriages but I am sure it's here somewhere, and 3 cars isn't too bad anyway for my tiny loop of HO track.

 

 

It's far from realistic, being just a repainted 125 I think. But it really does mean alot to me, and I hope to not lose it again.

 

So how many of you still have your very first model trains from when you were younger?

[cteno4]

Nice to discover a bit of childhood!

 

Yep, I still have the first couple of n scale engins that were given to me in like 1973... Minitrix fm switcher and u30c and old Bachman u36b. I need to dig them out to see if they still run but I bet they will as I use to overhaul them a lot and keep them very squeaky clean when i was a boy!

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

Here's mine, a Lima HO class 33 all the way from 1977:

 

 

Wheels have rusted but I could probably clean it up. I've still got most of the other stuff I had too.

[HantuBlauLOL]

Static Del Prado SBB Re460, i lost it..

 

However my first "model" trains are Tomix EF81 300 (still alive, only had the bogies replaced) and 800 tsubame, but its broken.

[Guest keio6000]

Kato 4-car 103 series in yamanote color but with the regular cab rather than the high yamanote cab.  bought it by saving up lunch money what must be 26 years ago.   still runs as new.

Edited January 4, 2015 by keio6000

[VJM]

Ha! The Worm!  Going to stump up for the modern Auscision model?

[kvp]

I was 2 years old when my father bought a Berliner TT Bahn start set, more likely for himself than me, but i was allowed to play with it. It was just a br80 and 2 green coaches, a loop of track and a battery controller, but that was my first set. They are extremly battered and most buffers are missing, but i still have them and last time i tried the loco could actually pull the coaches around a loop. Sadly i don't have much track since the track mat layout my father built was accidentally destroyed by painters during a renovation, but i still have the rolling stock (the br80, a railbus a german and a chechslovakian diesel with a freight and a passenger train) at my mom's place on a shelf behind glass. They were packed away in a shoebox after i lost the layout and i took them out and placed them on the shelf after i started modelling again (16 years later). Why not TT? Because the 'standard' japanese scale is Nj.

[Keikyu]

Ha! The Worm!  Going to stump up for the modern Auscision model?

 

I'd love to get the new XPT models but I just can't afford it.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

My first train was a Lima 0 gauge LMS 4F with a few wagons. Long since dead I'm afraid...  :(

[The Next Station Is...]

My parents have handed me a box with stuff it in, amongst which is the GWR branch line Hornby rolling stock from my first train set, including an 0-6-0 pannier locomotive. Time for a service and clean I think! :)

[Densha]

My first model trains were a bunch of hand-me-downs from my grandfather and cousin, mainly old Lima and Fleischmann stuff from the '70s-'90s. All H0 trains. At some point the Fleischmann trains broke down unfortunately, but I think they are already something like 40 years old now.

[NJHA]

Oh boy...

 

Mine is the orient express pulled by a steam locomotive made by jouef (a french maker if i am not mistaken). That train was from my older brother and i loved to play with it. One day my brother took the joiners from the tracks to prevent me from messing up the train and the train was forgotten on a box.

When i restarted, around 30 years later i went for it but that old train is in bad shape.

It runs, but the locomotive has some broken parts and the bogie pin that allows it to attach to the passenger car is broken off and was glued back on, on a rather poor job with glue all over the place.

I have tried to recover the bogies or get new ones but in Portugal the answer i got from a retailer was: "impossible to fix. get a new one" 

 

I may still recover it and put it on a display, since it is H0 and i deal with N now.  

[Eurostar25]

My first one was a kitset of a New Zealand railways passenger carriage. I happened to go to a train show and saw a set of them running around and thought I must have a go at one. Turned out to be S scale, 1:64 in size running on HO scale track to represent our narrow gauge here.

 

Not the best photo but a good challenge after making a few model aircraft for sure!

 

First Japanese model was a 500 series 3 car Tomix set.

 

 

[Ewan.in.gz]

Memories, memories, memories!

 

If I remember correctly (through 30+ years of haze....), my first model train was one of Hornby's old "Australian" outline local freight sets.... Basically a British Rail Class 08 shunter painted in old-style oxide red livery with a couple of BR steam era 4-wheel wagons and an ex-LNER brake van in the same red NSWGR livery. My dad still has it in Brisbane, along with all the stuff in the garage's train room, his idea is to eventually set up a BR steam-diesel transition era layout, which can be converted to Australian outline by changing the stock.... Since he has at least as much "Australian" stock as British.

 

My first N-scale train was an old style Bachmann Santa Fe freight train, with an F9 in ridiculously shiny "LustraChrome" and rather crappy snap-track! I still have it in a cupboard here in Guangzhou.

 

My first Japanese train was a Kato E3-1000 Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa set.

 

And, my first Chinese train was a 3-car Bachmann N-scale static model of a CRH 3, which is the version of the ICE 3 that Siemens supplied for the Chinese high speed rail system. I bought that at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. It comes mounted in a display stand with a clear Perspex tube to protect and keep the train clean.

[Ewan.in.gz]

As for the Lima XPT that Keikyu found, yes, it is just a BR HST IC125 painted in the CountryLink scheme, but the power cars are reasonably accurate, since the XPT is basically HST power cars with custom Comeng streamliner coaches instead of Mark 3s! I remember both Hornby and Lima did that in "HO".... Although, of course, the models were actually built to OO scale standards! I also have a memory of someone in Sydney offering custom painted Jouef TGVs when the SpeedRail proposal came up.... Ringing any bells?

[marknewton]

 

The CountryLink colour scheme has changed since Lima produced these models - my photo shows how they currently look. I suppose that since CLink has been rebranded as NSWTrainLink they'll have yet another new livery soon.

 

The Lima models aren't very accurate in any colour scheme, as the XP power cars are a very different machine to the HST power cars. I'm sort of tempted by the forthcoming Auscision models if only to have a memento of the time I worked on them at Meeks Road.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited January 5, 2015 by marknewton

[Ewan.in.gz]

Mark,

 

By "reasonably accurate" I meant that they have the correct basic shape.... But to get the right details you'd definitely need to do a lot of kitbashing, especially around the cabs and roofs. Then you'd need to scratchbuild completely new coaches.... I remember seeing one in Model Railroader years ago which looked like Lima powercars sandwiching US streamliners! 

 

My dad once came up with the idea of splicing "XPT" Mk 3 bodyshells with BR Intercity ones and having 2 separate sets of power cars.... But since he is into steam and early diesel, nothing ever came of that!

 

Ewan

[marknewton]

The basic shape is about all they have in common. Even then the HST power cars are a little longer than the XPs. Having worked on them for a fair part of my railway career I could never settle for a less than accurate model, so I may yet spend some money with Auscision.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Ewan.in.gz]

Hahah, that's totally understandable! I always thought the Lima "XPTs" looked pretty weird, anyway.... I only noticed in them because of my interest in the Sectorised BR era....

 

All of which is pretty off topic for this thread!

 

Ewan

[marknewton]

That's true. I can't fault Keikyu's taste in trains, though. I'm very fond of our XPTs. :)

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

Edited January 5, 2015 by marknewton

[Ewan.in.gz]

I always liked them too.... The most comfortable way to get from Brisbane to Sydney before I moved to China!

 

All the best to back to you, and to everyone else too!

 

Enjoy our hobby!

 

Ewan